Right out of the gate I’ll say that Pico Park 2 would be a great poster child for the classic statement “Looks can be deceiving”. If you gave it a glance and said it seems to be a game you could have played back in the OG Atari generation you wouldn’t be wrong. Most everything in the game doesn’t just have a pixel art style, this is going for the “chunky” old-school look at that. Nevertheless, if you get a few friends together and are willing to give it a go, it will absolutely still deliver a good, and likely pretty loud, time for all.

Out of the gate, I’ll admit I was a little underwhelmed. The fact is that my family and I have played quite a number of local co-op games at this point in the Switch’s lifespan, and while the game’s opening world is a little more demanding than most in terms of technique, it’s pretty well-trodden territory. Once you move past that first world with its four levels though, the rules, overall style, and odds of you and whoever you’re playing with getting a bit more aggravated will continue to grow. I think it’s when we played a world of shoot-em-up style levels, each with their own variations in what you needed to do to be successful, where it really hit home that we were playing a game with its own plan and direction. In that moment, it was easy to admire the effort behind the experience even as we tended to curse it… and that’s before even getting into its additional modes that add even more diverse challenges.

The thing is, the variety in the game’s worlds and challenges aren’t the only feat it pulls off well. The other is that it has been built to scale to playing with up to 8 players (whether locally or online), though managing more than 4 feels like it would be a substantial challenge… especially if you aren’t all in the same room and able to easily communicate. The difficulty lies in what cooperating means in the context of any given world or stage. In some worlds, stronger players can help compensate for weaker ones, but in many cases the fact that the game will often switch the roles people have when you die and start a level over, means that you’ll really need everyone playing to at least be somewhat capable. The thing is, even if you’re all skilled gamers, if you aren’t coordinating well and at least somewhat communicating, you’d still have serious issues in trying to find success.

Even with as many co-op games as I’ve played on the system, I can’t say I’ve played anything quite as distinctive or ambitious as Pico Park 2. Even if it had only implemented about half of the different modes and gameplay styles you’ll hit in different stages, it still would have been a feat. The fact that it seems that they kept finding new rules to implement, or genres to emulate, even after likely having a solid experience on their hands, is commendable. Now, bear in mind that playing solo (outside of finding match-ups online) is not an option, but if you’ve been looking for something to enjoy with friends or family this puts in the work, even if it may not be much of a looker.